Supreme Court: On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the government’s decision to cancel the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) due to question paper leak. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra claimed that dismissing the PIL does not mean adjudicating on the merits of the PIL as it was not filed by students but by a lawyer. “Why are you (lawyer) coming? Let the students come here themselves,” the CJI said. It also added, “While dismissing the aforesaid PIL, we do not express anything on the merits”. Further, the bench asked the PIL petitioner, advocate Ujjwal Gaur, to focus on legal matters and leave such matters to the aggrieved students. The petition was filed against the decision of the Union Education Ministry to cancel the exam and the National Testing Agency (NTA) to cancel the UGC-NET. On June 19, the ministry cancelled the exam and handed over the case to the CBI for further investigation. Meanwhile, Ujjwal Gaur’s petition requested an immediate stay on the UGC-NET re-exam until the CBI reaches a definite conclusion regarding the question paper leak controversy. The petitioner also claimed that the cancellation of the exam is causing distress and anxiety to students. Also, it is now an unnecessary expenditure of resources for candidates who have worked hard for this crucial exam. On June 20, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shared that the UGC-NET exam question paper was leaked on the internet. The online paper was checked and it matched the original question paper, so the exam was cancelled. The UGC-NET re-exam will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) from August 21 to September 4. Meanwhile, the Combined Scientific and Industrial Research National Eligibility Test, (CSIR NET) was conducted from July 25 to July 27 as a Computer Based Test (CBT).
